Part 17. In which we see China.

After we had seen the museum we walked across the street to find a shady spot and this fellow on the right asked us if we wanted a horse and carriage ride through the city; he'd show us all the sights and he gave us the touristy spiel. We told him we had seen all the same sights that he mentioned, just in the last day or two. He was one determined young fellow and dropped the price (from $40 to $30) We still didn't agree, because we truly weren't interested. He was pretty insistent and I was getting annoyed, when Steven finally said that if you take us somewhere different, and take us back to our hotel at the end, we'll go, for $20. He happily agreed in a flash (so you know that $40 was a ludicrous price and even $20 was probably too high, but the coco taxi's from where we were to our hotel were $8, so, we figured we'd see a few new sights for an extra $12)

He called for his buddy, a shady looking fellow, who slunk out of nowhere, introduced us to his horse, Mitsubishi, and we all climbed in and trotted off. We headed through old Havana and then onto a road near the waterfront, lined on one side with bars and ice cream stands, grocery stores with cabbages piled at the door, a pharmacy with nothing on the shelves at all and a lone pharmacist standing in the doorway, smoking. Steven asked if we could pull over for a beer as it was just SO hot. He hopped out and bought a beer for him and the guide, and a cola for the driver and me. The driver had to refuse a beer as any kind of drinking and driving (even in a horse and carriage) is illegal and a first time penalty is 2 years loss of license.

Once our guide has his beer though, the floodgates opened. He took us to Chinatown and showed us all the best places to eat, (and I'll say that these places looked like that LAST place that you would want to eat) he took us to his house (oh my, it was not very nice) He showed us all the places where he and his friends hung out, and where the local families shopped.

The streets are very, very narrow, there is room for a small car to pull over and just enough room for another car (or horse and carriage) to squeeze by. There are no sidewalks and the apartments on the bottom floor have their front door right there...their door opens right on the street. I could have almost reached inside and grabbed dinner off the table.

The homes don't have running water and you see large water tankers lumbering through the streets, filling up tubs and 5 gallon pals with water. Also, you see similar trucks that actually have tanks of pop, as in soda, doing the same thing. It was odd, seeing a little kid running home with a bucket of fizzy cola.

It was pretty interesting to see a local neighbourhood and to watch the people going about their daily routine. I felt like a bit of a dork, riding through their neighbourhood in a touristy horse and carriage, but the driver was hello-ing and waving to his buddies, stopping to share a cigarette every now and then and no one seemed to care. The Cuban people that we met were all very interested in where we were from, some like to talk politics, but these fellows were interested in Canadian music and in brand names. Young kids are they same everywhere! He recognized Steven's Oakley sunglasses and Sorel sandals right away, and wanted to know if we thought his shirt and shoes were good. He said he loves his job, and as long as he sleeps good at night and has some money for a beer, then he is happy. When he doesn't sleep anymore, then he gets a new job. Pretty good attitude. We ended up giving them both a substantial tip.

The bicycle sort of rickshaw you see is only for the Cubans, they aren't supposed to carry any tourists in these. No one that I spoke to was really sure why, it can't be a safety issue as the coco taxis' have no side or seatbelts and go whipping down the busy streets and you have to sometimes hang on tightly or risk falling right out. If you click on the picture below twice, to enlarge it, you can see how depressing the local grocery store is.